Recycling of domestic, commercial and industrial waste is now common throughout the world. In modern cities local authorities and/or private contractors periodically collect recyclable containers, paper and green waste from residents. That waste is then transported to a transfer station where it is separated into different material types and packed into bales or stored in bins. For example, clear glass, green glass, amber glass into bins, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles and containers into bales, aluminium cans into bins, High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) plastic bottles and containers into bales, steel cans into bins and paper and green waste into bins.
Referring to the recycling of used materials (such as glass and plastic bottles, metal cans and other such containers), to be used in a manufacturing process the used materials are collected from the transfer station and sent to either a material recovery facility (MRF) or direct to a manufacturing plant. For example, normally glass containers are ground into cullet at a MRF before transfer to glass bottle manufacturers. Plastic containers are ground into flakes at either a MRF or at the plastic container or bottle manufacturing plant. Aluminium and steel cans are compacted at an MRF and are then transported to a smelting plant for processing into ingots. The ingots are then delivered to the can manufacturing plant. Currently, significant time and expense is incurred in collecting bulky commingled dirty used materials from residences for transfer to an MRF where the material needs to be unloaded, separated, sorted, contamination removed creating significant quantities of waste material that must be discarded to landfill, so that the recyclable material can be processed or packed for delivery to a manufacturing plant.
There is a need for an apparatus to conduct processing of recyclable used materials at the site where the material is used and prior to being commingled and then collected by local authorities or contractors. Such an apparatus would significantly decrease the cost of recycling used materials plus enhancing the value of the recycled material as the separating, cleaning, grinding, flaking, compacting and crushing of the used materials would occur at the point of the apparatus. The resultant used materials each in their separate now near pure material form at a substantially reduced volume can then be directly transferred to the respective a manufacturing facility for direct input into the manufacturing process without the need for additional processing and without having been sent to a MRF.